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]]>The documentary became a piece of work titled “In Pieces”, produced under Reduced Listening, which aired on BBC Radio 4’s Illuminated on Sunday 12th January, and is now available as an episode of the Illuminated podcast. The Illuminated series showcases unique and unexpected one-off audio documentaries featuring innovative sound design and captivating storytelling to shine a light on hidden worlds.
We spoke to Hana to find out more about “In Pieces”, the challenges of creating this work, as well as her use of sound design in telling her story…
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your Illuminated episode, ‘In Pieces’?
I’m Hana… I guess the topline is that i’m a purpose driven, multi-award-winning storyteller, sound artist, and speaker. I’ve spent over a decade developing ideas and concepts, establishing (and fucking with) formats and finding brave and beautiful ways to tell stories for multiple mediums across radio and podcasting, documentary film, narrative non-fiction, and events. Lead by an insatiable curiosity, my work centres on helping us understand ourselves and each other, to take the big world stuff and make it human and include everyone in the conversation. Underpinning all of my work across all mediums has always been the drive to tell stories that empower. “In Pieces” does that in a very intimate and tender way. It’s a sound rich one-off documentary and one-off podcast about what it means to put yourself back together when everything has fallen apart.
Hana Walker-Brown – Photograph: Liz Seabrook
“In Pieces” is a very personal piece of work, what made you decide to turn your experience with burnout into this one-off documentary? What challenges did you face when creating it?
The intention was to try and alchemise the pain and trauma of the psychological impact of burnout into something useful, beautiful, and ultimately human and to do that, bravely confront the shame that so often tells us to hide so that other people who might feel this way could feel seen and heard and hopefully cultivate the courage to speak out. Stories are often how we create shape from the mess, how we make sense of the world, and often how we survive it. Giving us the power to hold what feels unholdable. I think burnout is still very misunderstood – certainly its severity on a psychological level and how intensely shameful it feels. Shame and stigma are so isolating but I think whenever we share our stories we encourage others to do the same.
The response so far has been utterly overwhelming – the amount of people that have reached out and said, “I thought I was the only person that felt like this,” which meant they had convinced themselves they were somehow failing. I think that’s such a defining factor in whether you feel deserving of help or not. But we all deserve help and support, we really can’t do it all by ourselves. I think it’s increasingly important in the times that we’re living in for us to find ways to show up for each other in any way we can and that was a huge motivator for me in making this. To provide a kind of peer support, the commissioner at the BBC called it “public service journalism” which feels right to me.
I think there are always challenges when you’re making anything creative and putting it out in the world – that’s an insanely vulnerable thing to do but when it’s about you it’s like a piece of your soul has been cut out and put on display (it’s giving Voldemort’s horcruxes for the millennials amongst us) but making this was an essential part of my recovery too – it feels like an exorcism, in a good way. An act of creative sublimination. It’s nice to be out the other side!
Credit to my incredibly kind exec Anishka Sharma at Reduced Listening here too – her guidance and grace were hugely important in getting it over the line.
It’s a masterful production and your sound design plays a large role in the storytelling; can you tell us about your decision to use sound in this way?
This is interesting on two levels because the real kicker with the burnout, the cruel twist I suppose but also the thing that made me finally accept something might be up, was that I lost the ability to edit and sound design. It was as if that part of my brain had been scrubbed out or like my entire software system had been changed into a foreign language I didn’t understand. Initially, I put that down to not sleeping but it all unravelled because of that and then I was signed off. I know now after extensive conversations with psychotherapists for the podcast, and privately, that this was my brains way of getting me to finally pay attention to what was happening because I was ignoring everything else. Clever, huh?! But more importantly, I think that sometimes when we go through these big psychological experiences we often don’t have the words to describe what’s happening but I have always known how to express myself in sound – it’s strange, maybe it’s my neurodivergence, maybe it’s the musician part of me, maybe it’s a bit wanky – probably a combination of all of those things – but I just know how to translate feeling into sound intuitively so it was important in not just telling the story but also in me figuring it all out myself. I have quite a distinct sonic signature that runs through all of my work and I usually build soundscapes before I do anything else. That was certainly the case here, I had all of these moments of sound, these little explorations of emotion literally in pieces, that I then started to weave together.
You mention CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) in your podcast episode, are there any other organizations you would recommend for people who suspect they may have burnout?
I think a medical professional – be it GP or therapist – is always an essential port of call if someone is struggling although access to both can be limited for some people. One thing that I realised through this experience is that there are so many free helplines in this country which means there are so many people who are on the other end of the phone whose sole purpose is to help you, to listen to you. So even if you think there is no one you can turn to (friends/family etc.) there is! I think there’s something powerful in being listened to – in saying our struggles out loud too – but really listened to and held without judgement by someone who can validate what you’re feeling and help you find gentle ways to take steps to move forward.
Samaritans: 24/7 emotional support at 116 123
Shout: 24/7 confidential support at 85258
Rethink Mental Illness: Advice and information on therapy and medication at 0300 5000 927
Mind infoline: Information on mental health problems and where to get help at 0300 123 3393
CALM Helpline and webchat: Open 5pm to midnight, 365 days a year at 0800 58 58 58
Hub of Hope, a national database that connects you with local mental health services
An interview like this isn’t comprehensive enough to delve into the complicated journey of recovering from burnout, but is there any advice you feel you could offer someone who is burnt out, or feels they are approaching burnout, as a first step along the path to recovery?
I’m not an expert and certainly not a psychotherapist but from my experience I would say the most important thing you can do is to be very honest about what’s happening, to acknowledge how you’re feeling and tell somebody that can support you and then to borrow the words of my friend Gabby, “to be aggressively kind to yourself.” That was something I didn’t do in the beginning out of fear and shame and well, you can hear how that worked out initially in the podcast!
Some readers will know you from your work with Broccoli Productions, especially the “Anthems” collections and We Were Always Here as well as Audible’s The Beautiful Brain which became your debut book “A Delicate Game”, but could you tell us more about your route into podcasting? What attracted you to podcasting in the first place?
It wasn’t a deliberate route to be honest, it was just a very natural evolution from working in radio and sound design. I wanted to tell compelling stories in sound, and it didn’t really matter to me how that was labelled – radio/feature/podcast – just that I could do it. I did an MA in Radio at Goldsmiths where I now teach and was working for Falling Tree Productions and Radio Wolfgang for a while and then freelancing around until I was headhunted by Audible to come on as an executive producer, and later Broccoli Productions. The industry looks very different now and the barriers to entry are much higher and harder to break down, especially with the loss of places like Broccoli whose whole mission was really to advocate for and platform those who were being left behind. I think it can go from hopeful to hopeless real quick but we all have a responsibility to ensure that we’re doing whatever we can to leave the doors that we have unlocked opened for others. I think it’s also important to be creative in how we adapt and evolve. I work in many different mediums, but I still find sound the most powerful – how you can take someone out of their everyday and into other worlds just through their ears! I think it’s rare and precious to establish that kind of intimacy in the world we live in, especially with strangers, to provide solace, comfort, and connection in ways other mediums simply can’t.
Hana Walker-Brown – getting back to nature at Hamstead Heath – Photograph: Liz Seabrook
What was the first podcast you ever listened to?
It was Serial! It had just launched, and I was working for Falling Tree Productions at the time and Alan (Hall) and I were flying to Chicago for the Third Coast Audio Festival. I listened to it the whole flight, I was first struck by the theme tune – I thought that was iconic – how it had such a defined identity just from the music alone but more vividly I remember being at the festival and this very visceral collective feeling that everything had changed now, that this was a new era. I don’t personally listen to true crime, I find the fetishisation of dead women and the ethics of consent in this genre very, very murky but I think Serial was and remains the most defining moment for audio journalism/podcasting not least because it was finally being regarded on a global scale.
Which podcasts do you take inspiration from?
The late, forever great, Short Cuts. It was an incredibly generous space for creativity and adventurous audio and a pleasure to hear how producers (new and experienced) from around the world were interpreting sound storytelling, meeting, and responding to the world while often finding their own voice within it. That’s a gift – to be allowed into those worlds and be invited to just get lost for a while. Thirteen years is a hell of a run for a show and even though it’s lost its home on the BBC, I know that the spirit of all of that will long continue in whatever Eleanor (McDowall – series creator) and the team tends to next.
Which one podcast episode that you have worked on means the most to you?
It was an episode of Anthems Home by Anton Ferrie. During the pandemic we knew a lot of people were out of work and totally isolated, so we (Broccoli) launched Anthems Home inviting people from all over the world to pitch to us and participate in Anthems in a way we hadn’t done with the previous series we’d made. It also felt like a good way to document that utterly mad moment in time where we were all just at home. I remember getting this email from a student in Glasgow who was living with his Grannie on a council estate at the time, and it just absolutely floored me. Anton’s writing was so eloquent and emotive and authentic, just a naturally gifted storyteller. I couldn’t believe he’d never done anything like it before so we gave him a commission and it remains to this day my favourite Anthems episode. It really struck a chord with so many people and it made the Bello 100 Best Podcast Episodes list that year.
What’s one podcast you’re really enjoying right now?
Miss Me with Miquita Oliver and Lily Allen. As a woman, it really feels like the collective breath we’ve all been holding. Protect them at all costs! Also, the theme music slaps.
Can you tell us anything about your plans for 2025? Do you have any other podcast series or one-offs in the pipeline?
I’m constantly exploring how I can use storytelling as a force for good, not just in the work I create but through the talks I give and the workshops I teach most notably in young adult prisons, using creative tools to help participants regain confidence and agency. I’m leading on two brilliant projects within Women’s Prisons for the Prison Radio Association – that include co-facilitating workshops with the formidable Lady Unchained. Some of the work that’s coming out of the projects, especially from the women themselves is incredible although everything we make will only be heard within prison. I’m also writing another book. I guess in the way The Beautiful Brain podcast evolved into my debut book “A Delicate Game”, “In Pieces”, or certainly the themes of it, will be expanded upon and explored in my second although that’s as much as I can say right now! For anything else… watch this space…
Where can the Pod Bible readers find out more about you?
I’m only (and sporadically) on Instagram now and my website.
Listen to “In Pieces” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other popular podcast apps >>
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]]>We caught up with Hana Walker-Brown from Broccoli Productions to discuss their podcast Anthems, and specifically the new series Anthems Pride which is being released daily throughout June!
Listen to the Anthems on Spotify.
Listen to the Pod Bible Podcast on Acast or Spotify.
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]]>The post #084 • Anthems • Shade Podcast • The MMA Fan Podcast appeared first on POD BIBLE.
]]>Adam is back to walk you through the weeks podcast proceedings, with guests including Hana Walker-Brown from Broccoli Productions talking about Anthems, Lou Mensah from Shade and Blake Harrison from The MMA Fan Podcast!
LISTEN TO THIS WEEKS GUESTS!
Shade Podcast • Acast • Spotify
The MMA Fan Podcast • Acast • Spotify
LISTEN TO THIS WEEKS RECOMMENDATIONS!
Today In Focus • Acast • Spotify
Your Floating Bed • Acast • Spotify
PODBIBLE LINKS!
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]]>The post Hana Walker-Brown // creating #AnthemsWomen for Broccoli Productions appeared first on POD BIBLE.
]]>– Broccoli Productions
Like Broccoli Productions, we don’t want to limit our International Women’s offering to just one article on one day. We’ve not quite stretched to a month, but we’ve got a week packed full of interviews and articles to help you find enough podcasts to take you through the year.
Subscribers to the Pod Bible newsletter will know that Broccoli Productions have brought back their flagship podcast series, Anthems Women. For the second year, the series will run throughout March in celebration of women for International Women’s Day and beyond. 31 women have written and read original manifestos, speeches, stories, poems and rallying cries. The voices are diverse, and celebrate and contemplate what it means to be a woman.
As with their other Anthems series, each short episode begins with a “word of the day” that encapsulates the theme of the episode, leaving the listeners with something to contemplate after they’ve finished listening.
I asked the Creator of Anthems, Hana Walker-Brown, about creating the podcast and what to expect from it this year. Plus, there’s some bonus recommendations for some top podcasts to listen to on International Women’s Day and beyond!
Anthems Producer, Hana Walker-Brown. Image Credit Joe Magowan.
How does it feel to be back with your flagship podcast series?
HWB: It feels great. I love this show, I love how it’s evolved over the last year and how many incredible people we’ve gotten to work with and platform. It’s so important to me that women are elevated and championed within this industry which is why I created the series in the first place and if it leads onto other things for them then even better. There is definitely a renewed energy this year to the pieces and it really is a joy to get to sit with these women’s words.
Each woman in the series is so unique and so authentically themselves and yet, despite their differences, what begins to emerge throughout the series are so many common threads between the women, which is mirrored in the response we get from our listeners too. That feels important – a reminder that there is more that binds us together than sets us apart. So yeah, it feels good to be back and to be able to do this.
An episode a day for a month is an immense offering. How long has this taken to put together?
HWB: That was the intention all along really – to offer something big and bold in a really distinct style format that sort of stuck a middle finger up to the industry that often waits until the 8th March to release a women lead show. We kick off mid-January so it’s a comparatively short production time for the undertaking but we’ve really nailed down the process. This is series five in the “Anthems” strand so we’ve got a good system down. It’s just the Broccoli way and personally, I love making this series so while it’s a huge lift, it definitely feels worth it.
Is that about the same as last year’s series, or was it easier/harder this time?
HWB: Yeah pretty much, we’ve done Anthems Home, Anthems Pride and Anthems Black since last year’s Anthems Women so we know what we’re doing. We had a big rebrand recently so we’ve had to remake all the social media assets and artwork which is all done by our team at Broccoli but once we’re in the swing of it it’s like clockwork.
How did you decide the order for releasing the episodes?
HWB: Representation across the week is essential – in terms of both our contributors identity and experience. It’s a fact universally acknowledged that if you’re not seen then you don’t matter and it’s really important for us, professionally and personally, to make sure that every voice is amplified. Anthems was partly born out of my annoyance at this kind of “one size fits all” feminism that had been brewing for a while, exacerbated by social media that just excluded so many women and the rich kaleidoscope of our experience. We really try to tap into that across the series. The weeks are planned and there is a flow to each one – certain subjects do compliment certain days, but I’ll let you try and figure that out!
You did an episode in the first Anthems Women. Can you tell us if there is another one from you?
HWB: I did, it’s our Broccoli tradition that each team member has to do an Anthem so we’ve all been part of one of the series so far with the exception of our new production assistant who will feature in this year’s Anthems Pride. I think it’s cool to put makers in front of the mic, and it means you get to know us a little bit more. But ones enough from me – there are so many women out there with something to say that we want to offer this space to.
Can you recommend any other podcasts to start listening to this month (and continue listening to afterward)?
HWB: Yes absolutely, some great shows made by women, which are for life not just for IWD…
Masala Podcast by Sangeeta Pillai – I produced the first two series and Sangeeta is just a star. She’s not afraid to have the difficult but vital conversations around the taboo subjects in South Asian culture. Plus she really cares which you can hear in every single episode.
Confident and Killing It by Tiwa Ogunlesi, which offers a weekly dose of positivity and inspiration. Tiwa’s ability to celebrate women and instil confidence is like a super power.
Our series Broccoli Bookclub (of course) hosted by journalist Diyora Shadijanova. It introduces readers and listeners to bold titles and new authors through provocative conversation and meaningful discussion.
Listen to Anthems Women on ACAST, SPOTIFY or all OTHER PODCAST APPS. You can follow Hana on Twitter and Instagram. Broccoli Productions is on Twitter and Instagram.
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